Colin Quinn

Living by the comedian's rule that nothing is sacred, stand-up comic Colin Quinn was unflinchingly honest when tackling controversial issues like politics and religion, while having no qualms about gi...
Read More...

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld has teamed up with old pal Colin Quinn for a new web series about the development of a TV police drama. Quinn will direct and star in Cop Show, which will debut online this spring (15) and Seinfeld will appear in one of the project's eight episodes. Fellow comedians Jim Norton, Jim Gaffigan and Amy Schumer will also appear in the "brave, bold new show".

Funnyman George Carlin's daughter is adamant the street renamed in his honour on Wednesday (22Oct14) would have "meant so much to him". The Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure star has been commemorated in his native New York City with his own road in Manhattan's Morningside Heights, the neighbourhood where he grew up.
George Carlin Way was unveiled on Wednesday in a ceremony attended by his daughter, Kelly, and a number of comedians including Colin Quinn, Robert Klein, Judah Friedlander and Gilbert Gottfried.
Kelly insists her dad would be thrilled with the newly-renamed West 121st Street, telling U.S. radio station 1010 WINS, "That neighbourhood meant so much to him that he continued to be friends with all the people he grew up with, and hung on corners with and got into trouble with... (He) spoke a lot and often and very fondly about that neighbourhood."
Carlin died of heart failure in 2008, aged 71.

Despite being nowhere near the announced cast list for Judd Apatow's upcoming comedy Trainwreck, Daniel Radcliffe and Marisa Tomei were revealed to be a potential part of the film by way of some curious set photos from the New York City shoot. In the photos, Radcliffe and Tomei are seen covered under a blanket of poodles. Radcliffe is also shown walking a big group of dogs solo. If the two actors are, in fact, part of the movie they would join a seriously odd and wondrous cast that including the likes of Amy Schumer, Bill Hader, Brie Larson, Colin Quinn, Vanessa Bayer, Ezra Miller John Cena, and Barkhad Abdi.
Since we doubt that Mr. Radcliffe has morphed into some sort of crazy dog person in the ensuing years since the Harry Potter went on permanent recess, we're just going to ignore this little tweet from director Judd Apatow denying Radcliffe's involvement and assume that he's in the film, albeit in a small cameo role. Whatever Radcliffe's role in the film turns out to be, it looks hilarious, and the images of the actor corralling a half dozen dogs at a time are all so wonderfully caption-able, we couldn't help put take a stab at them with our best one-liners.
First:
Getty Images/Steve Sands
“No, it’s okay. You just have to sing to them and they’ll calm down. I saw it in a movie once.”
Harry Potter had to take up dog walking after earning that useless Philosophy of Magic degree from Wizard State University.
“I don’t know why you expect me to control them; I think a few of these dogs are bigger than me!”
“I’m starting to rethink this whole ‘quit showbiz to become a dog walker and search for your inner happiness’ thing.”
"I'm not sure, but one of these may be my uncle."
“Get some dogs, they said. It’ll help you recover from the trauma of losing Sirius, they said. Don’t worry, they almost never trample you to death, they said.”
“…And then the spell must have ricocheted off of something, because everyone in the Gryffindor common room turned into a dog and Ron keeps terrorizing the hot dog carts and I don’t know what to do.”
And now:
Getty Images/Steve Sands
“What, you think I’m scared of a few dogs? I conquered the Dark Lord. I am invincible.”
“I mean, once you learn how to ride a dragon, other animals just don’t seem that intimidating anymore.”
"Lean Parseltounge at Hogwarts, they said. You'll never need to know Poodletounge, they said. The poodles will never attack… "
“Could Cripple Billy do this? No. No he could not.”
“You wanna start something? I’m Harry Potter, I will curse you into next week. I will command these poodles to lick you to death.”
“What? Have you seen rent prices recently? That Harry Potter money doesn’t cover everything.”
Follow @Hollywood_com
//
Follow @CurrentlyJordan
//

Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images
The NBA season might be coming to a close, but it doesn't look like Lebron James will be taking a vacation any time soon. According to TheWrap, the Miami Heat star has joined the cast of Judd Apatow's upcoming comedy Trainwreck, along with rapper/actor Method Man. The film will star Amy Shumer, who also wrote the script, and follows a woman who has a knack for ruining everything in her life as she attempts to rebuild from the ground up. It hasn't yet been revealed what kind of role Method Man or James will play, but since the latter only has a short window of free time every year, it seems likely that his will be a smaller part.
The pair are the latest additions to Trainwreck's diverse cast, which includes indie darlings, Oscar nominees and Councilman Jamm, in addition to a rapper and an NBA champion. Upon first glance, the cast list might read as if several IMDB pages got mixed up, but this strange group of people actually make perfect sense together, because all of the big names involved with the project are connected. In fact, it's possible to connect every single person who has signed on to this film, from James to Bill Hader to Tilda Swinton, with a maximum of two degrees of separation between them - surprisingly, none of which are Kevin Bacon. Let's start with the director:
Judd Apatow directed Funny People, which starred Aziz Ansari, who was on Parks and Recreation with…
Jon Glaser, who plays Laird on Girls, which also featured…
Colin Quinn in the role of Hermie. Quinn is a Saturday Night Live alum just like…
Bill Hader who was on SNL at the same time as…
Vanessa Bayer, who is part of the current cast with Bobby Moynihan, who does voice work on Chozen alongside…
Method Man, who starred in The Sitter with Jonah Hill. Hill was in 21 Jump Street with…
Brie Larson, who guest starred on an episode of The Kroll Show, which airs on the same network as Inside Amy Shumer, which stars…
Amy Shumer, who appeared in Sleepwalk With Me, a film made by…
Mike Birbiglia, who had a role in Your Sister’s Sister with Emily Blunt. Blunt has acted opposite Tom Hanks, as did…
Barkhad Abdi, who was nominated for an Oscar, just like…
Tilda Swinton, who is in The Zero Theorem with Matt Damon, who appeared on Entourage with…
Lebron James, who is an athlete-turned-actor, as is…
John Cena, who guest starred on Pysch, which airs on the same network as Royal Pains, which featured a 5 episode guest spot from…
Ezra Miller, who starred in The Perks of Being a Wallflower with Paul Rudd, a perennial favorite of Judd Apatow.
See? It's not such a strange bunch after all.
Follow @hollywood_com
//
Follow @julesemm
//

NBC
On Saturday Night Live, the cast member who anchors Weekend Update has always had a special role to fill on the show. Guaranteed a showcase, they are the one constant in an otherwise ever changing group of sketches.
The originator of the role, Chevy Chase, left after one season to find stardom in movies, setting an example that would be followed going forward: Weekend Update anchors moving on to bigger and better things. You may have heard of Chase's immediate successors — Jane Curtin, Dan Aykroyd, and Bill Murray — all of whom (along with Chase) continue working regularly in film and television 30-plus years later. But how about everyone else who's held the desk?
THE LOST YEARS
When first Jean Doumanian and then Dick Ebersol took over as executive producer after Lorne Michaels exited the show following the 1979 - '80 season, the segment went through a number of changes, including sometimes being called Newsbreak and Saturday Night News. The most prominent host during the early '80s was Brad Hall — known to most, now, as Julia Louis-Dreyfus' husband — who anchored from 1982 - '84. Many of the other anchors during that time — Charles Rocket, Christine Ebersole, Brian Doyle-Murray, and Mary Gross — did the segment for just a year (or less). Most members of this group have faded into the background, although Rocket, who famously dropped an F-bomb during a SNL sketch, made regular appearances on television and movies (Moonlighting, Dances with Wolves) until his death in 2005. Doyle-Murray (Bill's older brother) and Guest were established character actors before joining the show and didn't miss a beat after leaving. Doyle-Murray has been in everything from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation to ABC's The Middle, usually playing some variation of a blowhard. Guest most famously played the six-fingered Count Rugen in The Princess Bride and earned additional praise for directing ensemble comedies like Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show.
THE GOLDEN AGE
Since Michaels took back the reins of SNL in 1985, the format of Weekend Update has remained largely unchanged and the comics that have sat behind the desk have become some of the biggest names in entertainment. But, who's having the best post-SNL career? Starting with the mid '80s, we rank them from worst to best below:
Kevin Nealon (1991 - '94) and Colin Quinn (1998 - 2000)
Most non-hardcore SNL fans would have difficulty remembering anything about either Nealon's or Quinn's stint on Update, so maybe it's not surprising that they've had the least success since leaving the show (although they've still done significantly better than most of the Ebersol folk). Quinn was a stand-up comic before the show and just returned to doing more of the same when he left. He did host a show on Comedy Central for a while, Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn. Nealon's biggest success came playing hapless accountant Doug Wilson on Showtime's Weeds. Each is friends with fellow SNL alum Adam Sandler, so Nealon and Quinn also show up occasionally doing cameos in Sandler's films. Lately, we've seen Quinn show up on episodes of Girls as a boss and friend of Alex Karpovsky's character Ray.
Norm Macdonald (1994 - '97)
Like Quinn, Macdonald came to SNL with an established background in stand-up. He had the good fortune to be behind the desk during the O.J. Simpson arrest and trial, which provided endless fodder for the comedian… and possibly led to his dismissal after running afoul of NBC executive Don Ohlmeyer, a friend of Simpson. Macdonald had his own sitcom on ABC for three years (Norm), and keeps a steady schedule of stand-up dates. Besides doing voice-over and commercial work, he's also a frequent guest of Conan O'Brien and, like Quinn and Nealon, has a habit of showing up in movies that Sandler produces.
Seth Meyers (2006 - '14)
Meyers sat behind the Weekend Update desk longer than anyone, and is the only anchor that worked both solo and with a partner. He has only been gone a few months, so it's hard to grade him, but he's off to a rousing start as the host of NBC's Late Night with Seth Meyers, maintaining his 30 Rock residence and boss Michaels. We're rooting for you, Seth.
Dennis Miller (1985 - '91)
Miller was the one responsible for returning Update back to something closer to Chase's original version. Unlike most of the others, Miller's sole role on the show was hosting the fake news segment, very rarely taking part in any of the show's sketches. Miller also might be the most controversial of the former anchors. After leaving SNL, he hosted Dennis Miller Live on HBO from 1994 - 2002, winning five Emmys. He also did a disastrous two-season stint as a commentator on ABC's Monday Night Football. After 2001, Miller's political views became increasingly conservative, leading to him to a gig at Fox News with a regular spot on Bill O'Reilly's The O'Reilly Factor. Since 2007, Miller has also hosted a syndicated radio show. Oddly, when Miller is on vacation his frequent fill-in both on radio and with O'Reilly is Macdonald.
Amy Poehler (2004 - '08)
One of the founders of the influential improv group Upright Citizens Brigade, Poehler joined with Tina Fey to form the first all-female team on Weekend Update, and the two have been joined together ever since. Poehler was such a powerful presence on the show that she managed to make an appearance on the segment by frequent target Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin come off as charming instead of forced. Since SNL, Poehler has starred in the movie Baby Mama and has done the voices for more animated characters than we can count. She also just completed her sixth season starring in NBC's Parks and Recreation. Time magazine named her one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2011 and, oh yeah, and she has a little awards show hosting gig that she does with Fey.
Jimmy Fallon (2000 - '04)
Fallon teamed with Fey to turn Update back into a buzz-worthy segment, with the two of them trading quips at which Fallon would frequently crack up. He tried his hand at movies after leaving the show, starring in Fever Pitch with Drew Barrymore and Taxi with Queen Latifah. It was when he returned to television, however, that he really hit his stride. Starting with taking over for O'Brien on Late Night, Fallon has steadily grown into one of the most powerful people in the entertainment industry as a late night talk show host. In February, he took over for Jay Leno on The Tonight Show, moving it back to New York from Los Angeles and earning accolades for his mix of goofy humor, music, and social media interaction.
Tina Fey (2000 - '06)
During her time on SNL, in addition to co-anchoring Update with first Fallon and then Poehler, Fey was the show's first female head writer. While still on the show, Fey wrote the hit teen comedy Mean Girls, and since leaving has starred in a group of comedies, including Baby Mama with Poehler and most recently Muppets Most Wanted. She wrote, produced, and starred in NBC's 30 Rock for seven seasons, and her book Bossypants was number one on the New York Times bestseller list for five weeks. She's won eight Emmys, most recently for her work hosting the Golden Globes with Poehler, and she was the youngest ever recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Dazzlingly smart and funny, it's hard to find many people that can match resumes with Fey.
Follow @Hollywood_com
//
Follow @LifeAsSitcom
//

Michael Roman/WENN
When Saturday Night Live announced that Colin Jost would replace the departing Seth Meyers as Cecily Strong's co-anchor of Weekend Update, the news was met with a giant, "Huh?" It isn't that there's anything wrong with Jost — along with Meyer he was one of SNL's head writers and he's a funny follow on Twitter — but the show already has 16 other cast members. Did anyone not already performing on the show really need to be brought in?
In short, no. While some cast members like Kate McKinnon, Bobby Moynihan and Vanessa Bayer already have Weekend Update roles with recurring characters, there are plenty of others that deserved a shot at joining Strong behind the desk. These five would've made more sense than moving Jost over from the writer's room.
Jay Pharoah
There's never been a minority cast member that has anchored Update. Pharaoah's Shaquille O'Neal impression has been put to good use during Update appearances, but it is also entirely expendable. Having Pharoah do his take of African-American broadcasters like Bryant Gumbel or Lester Holt set against Strong's Midwesterner would've provided a completely new dynamic for a segment that's been around for nearly 40 years.
Brooks Wheelan
Wheelan comes from a background in stand-up comedy and so far the SNL writers haven't shown that they know what to do with him. Dennis Miller, Norm MacDonald and Colin Quinn were all stand-up comedians that didn't look right anywhere on the show but behind the Update desk, so there would've been precedent. The one time that Wheelan has looked comfortable this year was on Update doing a routine instead of a character.
Beck Bennett
Bennett has already shown that he can milk comedy out of a serious persona — it's the basis of his well known AT&amp;T "It's Not Complicated" Ads. Putting Bennett with Strong might have allowed for the kind of disdainful byplay that Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin used in the 1970s to keep the Update segment popular (and from disappearing) after Chevy Chase left. A little tension on Update isn't a bad thing.
Sasheer Zamata
Other than hiring Zamata, the show hasn't done anything with its lone African-American female. Pairing Strong and Zamata together would've been even more groundbreaking for the show than if Pharoah had been given a shot. We haven't seen Zamata interact with the other cast members enough yet to know about chemistry, but the dual female anchors could've become Tina &amp; Amy 2.0.
Kyle Mooney
Mooney's main contribution to the show since joining the cast has been doing digital shorts with his fellow Good Neighbor alum Bennett. The shorts have typically been more odd than the standard SNL fare which seems to come directly from Mooney. Strong has shown that she's adept at doing the straight Update news jokes, but having Mooney's looniness around to counter that might have been fun.
Follow @Hollywood_com
//

HBO
This week, on a very special Girls...
One of the most interesting things a television program can do to take advantage of a diverse ensemble is throw a universal theme at the bunch and observe how each character reacts differently. And there’s no theme more universal than death. Maybe Game of Thrones, but that’s out of season. So this week, Girls thrives on the disparate ideologies of its collection of Brooklynites by killing off pseudo-character David Pressler-Goings.
So how does each character react, what is her or his relationship with death, and — most importantly — what does this tell us about the lot of ‘em?
Let’s start with Jessa this time…
…partially because she’s the first person Hannah breaks the news to (after she herself is hit with the tragedy after showing up to David’s office for a meeting), and partially because she’s the only other character who has a tangible story in this episode.
Jessa’s thoughts on death tread on the grand, philosophical side:“It’s something that happens. Like jury duty or floods.” “It must have been so heavy. That moment that it was all going down.””I kind of look forward to the day I die. If you think about it, time isn’t linear. Every moment that has ever happened, or that will ever happen, is happening right now. We just choose to live in this moment to create some illusion of continuity. So, really, we have already died, and also have not yet been born.
But there’s reason to believe that Jessa might not entirely buy into this quantum ideology, at least emotionally. As she reveals to Shoshanna over a subdued lute-plucking, Jessa had a friend named Season who died a long time ago. "My favorite friend," she sweetly reflects. A young woman who she cherished, suffered with, and comes to learn in this particularly eventful episode, is still alive.
After thinking about Season drums up some heavy feelings, Jessa calls Season's mother to get some emotional closure (the usually stoic Jessa is so vulnerable over this situation that she has a difficult time just saying the word "grave"), learning that her deceased friend and fellow addict faked her death long ago in order to get the problematic enabler Jessa out of her life for good. Rattled, angered, and hurt, Jessa tracks Season down to her Brooklyn brownstone, where she lives with her husband and baby, losing her s**t over the revelation that somebody she loved desperately pretended to die in order to get away from her. So far this season, Jessa has been able to keep her issues of loss and loneliness in relative control, but we can't imagine she'll be recovering from such a puzzling punch to the gut so easily.
Now, Adam...
Though a stranger to David, Adam's heart sinks when he hears about the death of Hannah's editor. What's more, he cannot fathom how his girlfriend is exhibiting such a dearth of emotional sensitivity to the issue (she's primarily concerned abou the fate of her eBook).
Adam's thoughts on death are far more visceral, to the point where he can't even spell them out beyond unsettled groans in response to Hannah's detachment for most of the episode. Until:"If I died, would you just be like, 'Oh, I hope I can make rent"? If you died, the world would blur. I wouldn't know what a tree was."
We don't get any insight into whether or not Adam has a personal experience with a close friend or family member's death, but clearly his sensitivities to the issue are especially potent.
Shoshanna, for a quick sec...
Shoshanna is roped into the story only via the aforementioned scene in which Jessa reveals her Season story, but she does have a lot to say. See, Shoshanna lost a friend too, back in high school, and the experience drummed up enough sadness to inspire her to write a book of poems. Of course, it also allowed her to usurp her role in their social clique, so win some lose some.
Ditto Ray...
He really just shows up to provide another, definitively more surprising, foil to Hannah's attitude. Ray, who intellectualizes every concept, genuinely feels over the death of David (who he only met during last week's bar tustle) and insults Hannah for own "sociopathic detachment." But he spends the rest of his screentime laughing with Colin Quinn at Marnie's music video, so maybe don't consider him such a saint just yet.
Laird!
"My whole life has been death," Laird says to Hannah. "Sometimes at dinner, when I am sitting at my table, I imagine I am in dialogue will all my dead ones." While Laird also tells Hannah that "you're just going to get number when it all comes like a waterfall," he also breaks down in tears during the tender, painful story of a young girl's death bequeathed unto him and Hannah by Adam's crazy, possibly psychotic sister Liney, from whom Hannah might not be too far a cry...
That Liney...
Hannah opens up to Liney about David's death and about the more pressing issue (in her mind) of Adam's disappointment with her reaction to it. Liney responds by instituting an ad hoc death-themed adventure, leading Hannah and Laird through a cemetary romp and challenging the depths of Hannah's detachment with a tragic story about her and Adam's young cousin who died of cerebral palsy. When she recognizes that Hannah doesn't even grow misty over the story, Liney cackles with delight, admitting that it was all made up, and celebrating Hannah's demented lack of feeling. But it's not the cemetary frolicking or crazy Liney's endorsement of Hannah's callous ways that are especially unsettling. Not compared to the grand finale...
Hannah.
In truth, there could be no character better used as a vehicle for this story than Hannah. Firstly, because she is our vessel into this world, and thus the character we most automatically empathize with (even when we're disapproving of her). But secondly, because Hannah's exhibition throughout and at the end of this episode is a horror story not limited to the parameters of the subject of death, but to the all encompassing reach of life. We see Hannah alter the way she introduces the news of David's death to her friends as the day goes on. First, she tells Jessa, complaining straight away about the uncertain fate of her eBook. She works up a softer approach for Adam, but still jumps into the selfishness quite abjectly. Afterwards, we see Hannah toss in phrases like "I lost a close friend" and pass off her lack of empathy as numbness, knowing full well that she couldn't possibly care less about David's passing. But the culmination of her chilling behavior comes when she, hoping to restore the favor of Adam (the person she claims to love and treasure), recounts the very same fake story that Liney told to her, provoking authentic tears from the sensitive Adam as she produces her own set of synthetic waterworks.
It's a horrifying scene because of how much it does hit home, on both sides. It takes a special kind of person to pull what Hannah pulls here, but the idea of emotional manipulation is not a strange one to anybody in any kind of relationship. Really, it's scary to see how close some of us might be to the capability of this act. Saying whatever possible to get things back to the way we're comfortable with them, convincing others (and ourselves) of outright lies in order to restore order or feel better. If you don't shudder with the familiarity of the final scene of this week's Girls, then good for you for living honestly so far. But although Hannah does take a very extreme and dark measure here, it's just a smidgen too close to home, and it's not a pretty sight.
Follow @Michael Arbeiter| Follow @Hollywood_com

HBO
Birthday episodes are a good opportunity to showcase the extremes of your characters’ emotionality. Internal stakes are always higher on birthdays. For the central figure, there’s the unwitting assignment of importance to the date — the hope and expectation that the night in question will carry some symbol of new beginnings, or that it might quell long held insecurities. For the surrounding parties, there too is heightened sensitivity, be it due to the observation of a friend ascending in contrast to one’s own stagnancy or maybe just a little too much booze. Whatever the reason, birthdays are a miserable catastrophe, both on television and in real life. And this week on Girls, we endure Hannah’s. The big 25, no less.
Let’s begin with our new character: CarolineDespite the fact that the episode takes place on Hannah’s birthday, Lena Dunham’s character is really secondary to her supporting players this week. Hannah meets Adam’s manic older sister Caroline (Gaby Hoffmann) when she shows up at their apartment after being fired and dumped, much to Mr. Sackler’s chagrin — he warns Hannah that his sister is a toxic presence and is altogether evil, but Hannah insists on inviting the ostensibly vulnerable young woman to her birthday party and winds up allowing her hospice in their apartment (though not without recognizing, at least just a bit, that the girl is trouble).
Caroline exhibits her dangers by kissing Hannah’s father, provoking (and biting) a downtrodden Ray, instigating a great deal of frustration from her brother Adam, and to top it all off, crushing a drinking glass in her hand in a shocking, frightening scene of mental vacancy. Although she easily warms her way back into Hannah’s heart with a sweet smile and some soft words, Caroline showcases all of the darkness inside of her in her brief time onscreen. (Her episodes to come should only up the ante.)
And on we go to MarnieUgh, poor Marnie. Hannah also plays a reactive party to Marnie’s slow decline into hopelessness as we watch the desperate Miss Michaels insist upon a nostalgic duet of Rent’s “Take Me or Leave Me” (the very idea of this horrifies and humiliates Hannah, but Marnie insists). Funnily enough, it all seems like a grab at some long dissipated self-worth, but winds up being anything but. We open Marnie’s story this week in the midst of a phone call with YouTube; she begs them to recall an embarrassing music video — starring Marnie — that Charlie posted while they were dating, to no avail.
Continuing with the elements planted in last week’s episode, all we see in Marnie’s future is more despair, but something about this week’s episode makes her story a bit more interesting. Maybe it is because we aren’t used to seeing television shows (comedies, especially) avail such rawness and humanity in actresses who look like the beautiful Allison Williams. Network television has long kept them from falling to personal “ugliness,” for fear of turning off viewers to the ultimate power of object attraction. And here Girls is, handling in the game of making viewers nauseatingly uncomfortable whenever Marnie is onscreen.
As much as we might like shows like New Girl, it’s easy to find truth in arguments that they propagates infantilization of women (a nasty, really troubling practice). While Marnie is hardly a character of strength, she is a step toward the idea that female characters aren’t here to abet an audience’s craving for something adorable. She might be one of the least enjoyed characters on Girls, but there’s a good reason for that — her presence is not meant to be comforting, and that’s a good thing.
Finally, Ray!Good ol’ Ray, who we missed out on last week, gets his moment to shine as he laments the fears of becoming a boss (Colin Quinn doles out some sage wisdom) and sobs over the idea of Shoshanna moving on from him. The two encounter one another at Hannah’s birthday, with Ray running into his ex’s date, attempting awkward conversation with the young lady, and then getting into a fight with Hannah’s lunatic editor. We also get a good taste of Ray’s ideology when he delves into his didactic devotion to song queues. Although his professionalism is on the rise, Ray is a wreck after losing his first love — as a staunch intellectual, he has no idea how to handle this ribald emotional chaos within him, which makes his upcoming story arc a terrifically exciting one for anybody who loves the character (like I do).
Not much in the way of Shoshanna or Jessa this week, but we’ll be seeing more from each in episodes to come. Chime in with your thoughts below!

Lions Gate via Everett Collection
When we last left our heroes, they had conquered all opponents in the 74th Annual Hunger Games, returned home to their newly refurbished living quarters in District 12, and fallen haplessly to the cannibalism of PTSD. And now we're back! Hitching our wagons once again to laconic Katniss Everdeen and her sweet-natured, just-for-the-camera boyfriend Peeta Mellark as they gear up for a second go at the Capitol's killing fields.
But hold your horses — there's a good hour and a half before we step back into the arena. However, the time spent with Katniss and Peeta before the announcement that they'll be competing again for the ceremonial Quarter Quell does not drag. In fact, it's got some of the film franchise's most interesting commentary about celebrity, reality television, and the media so far, well outweighing the merit of The Hunger Games' satire on the subject matter by having Katniss struggle with her responsibilities as Panem's idol. Does she abide by the command of status quo, delighting in the public's applause for her and keeping them complacently saturated with her smiles and curtsies? Or does Katniss hold three fingers high in opposition to the machine into which she has been thrown? It's a quarrel that the real Jennifer Lawrence would handle with a castigation of the media and a joke about sandwiches, or something... but her stakes are, admittedly, much lower. Harvey Weinstein isn't threatening to kill her secret boyfriend.
Through this chapter, Katniss also grapples with a more personal warfare: her devotion to Gale (despite her inability to commit to the idea of love) and her family, her complicated, moralistic affection for Peeta, her remorse over losing Rue, and her agonizing desire to flee the eye of the public and the Capitol. Oftentimes, Katniss' depression and guilty conscience transcends the bounds of sappy. Her soap opera scenes with a soot-covered Gale really push the limits, saved if only by the undeniable grace and charisma of star Lawrence at every step along the way of this film. So it's sappy, but never too sappy.
In fact, Catching Fire is a masterpiece of pushing limits as far as they'll extend before the point of diminishing returns. Director Francis Lawrence maintains an ambiance that lends to emotional investment but never imposes too much realism as to drip into territories of grit. All of Catching Fire lives in a dreamlike state, a stark contrast to Hunger Games' guttural, grimacing quality that robbed it of the life force Suzanne Collins pumped into her first novel.
Once we get to the thunderdome, our engines are effectively revved for the "fun part." Katniss, Peeta, and their array of allies and enemies traverse a nightmare course that seems perfectly suited for a videogame spin-off. At this point, we've spent just enough time with the secondary characters to grow a bit fond of them — deliberately obnoxious Finnick, jarringly provocative Johanna, offbeat geeks Beedee and Wiress — but not quite enough to dissolve the mystery surrounding any of them or their true intentions (which become more and more enigmatic as the film progresses). We only need adhere to Katniss and Peeta once tossed in the pit of doom that is the 75th Hunger Games arena, but finding real characters in the other tributes makes for a far more fun round of extreme manhunt.
But Catching Fire doesn't vie for anything particularly grand. It entertains and engages, having fun with and anchoring weight to its characters and circumstances, but stays within the expected confines of what a Hunger Games movie can be. It's a good one, but without shooting for succinctly interesting or surprising work with Katniss and her relationships or taking a stab at anything but the obvious in terms of sending up the militant tyrannical autocracy, it never even closes in on the possibility of being a great one.
3.5/5
Follow @Michael Arbeiter
//
| Follow @Hollywood_com
//

Breaking Bad stars Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul and Bob Odenkirk joined U.S. talk show host Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday (11Sep13) for a TV parody called Joking Bad. In the 13-minute skit, Fallon and comedian Steve Higgins concocted jokes instead of cooking meth, like Cranston's character Walter White does in the crime drama. The spoof also featured comedian Colin Quinn, U.S. TV host Jay Leno and Late Night With Jimmy Fallon house band The Roots, among many others.

Title

Made feature film debut with a cameo role as a gift shop clerk in "3 Men and a Baby"

Cast in a supporting role in "A Night at the Roxbury"

Wrote for FOX's hit sketch comedy series "In Living Color"

Appeared as the announcer for MTV's "Remote Control"; also wrote for the show

Hosted the A&E stand-up showcase "Caroline's Comedy Hour"

Played Dickie Bailey, the childhood town rival to Lenny Feder (played by Adam Sandler) in "Grown Ups"

Acted in and wrote the comedic short/music video "Going Back to Brooklyn" along with Ben Stiller

Played a homicide detective in "Married to the Mob"

Joined the cast of "Saturday Night Live" as a writer and featured player; Quinn took over Norm Macdonald's anchor seat for the "Weekend Update" segment in January 1998

Hosted the short-lived "The Colin Quinn Show" on NBC

Appeared in a one-man, off-Broadway show titled, "Colin Quinn Long Story Short"; show moved to Broadway in October

Summary

Living by the comedian's rule that nothing is sacred, stand-up comic Colin Quinn was unflinchingly honest when tackling controversial issues like politics and religion, while having no qualms about giving blow-by-blow details of his crazy sexual escapades. But it was that edgy, no-holds-barred approach to comedy - coupled with his trademark gravely voice and mush-mouthed delivery - that made Quinn stand out from the pack. He spent his early career writing for comedy shows like "In Living Color" (Fox, 1990-94) before landing a highly coveted spot on "Saturday Night Live" (NBC, 1975- ), taking over as host of "Weekend Update" in 1998. Unfortunately, Quinn was never fully comfortable in the anchor's seat and fans of the show found it difficult to accept him as Norm Macdonald's replacement. After a few failed attempts at hosting his own comedy talk show, Quinn found his footing on the series "The Colin Quinn Show" (Comedy Central, 2003-04), where, along with his comedy club cronies, he threw hilarious barbs at the world or at each other. In 2010, he embarked on his one-man Broadway show, "Colin Quinn: Long Story Short," which earned critical acclaim and went on to become an award-worthy HBO special. The show served as another platform where the talented performer once again showcased his quick wit and uncompromising style of comedy.